Baltic states call on Nato for help in face of Kremlin ‘expansionism’
After Putin's deployment of troops to region of Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania call on Nato to quell the Kremlin's 'expansionism'
Centuries of Soviet and tsarist oppression taught the three Baltic states to bar their doors whenever the Kremlin issues marching orders. Now they also scramble Nato jets.
President Vladimir Putin's decision to hold snap military drills in the Baltic Sea last week, just as he was pouring troops into Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, sent shockwaves through Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
After Ukraine will be Moldova, and [then it] will be different countries
The three republics demanded, and got, military support from Nato. The US deployed six warplanes to Lithuania on Thursday to bolster defences in the Baltic states for the first time since they joined the alliance in 2004, expanding the squadron to 10.
Another dozen will arrive in Poland on Monday, the country's Defence Ministry said.
About 150,000 soldiers took part in Putin's drills, including 3,500 from the Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad, Russia's exclave between Poland and Lithuania.
"Russia today is dangerous," Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said at an emergency meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels.
"After Ukraine will be Moldova, and after Moldova will be different countries. They are trying to rewrite the borders after the second world war in Europe."